Thursday, April 25, 2013

Empty billboards in Greece

They can still be found all around Greece, along the highways and inside the city centers. Today though, many advertisement billboards have stopped carrying messages.

As turnover in retail trade has dropped by 54.6% since 2009, the advertising companies that own the billboards have suffered greatly from the economic crisis, as those advertised, in their attempt to reduce operational costs, have slashed their advertising expenses.

This is untrue, billboards are not banned in Greece. However, there are laws that indicate where a billboard can be placed (how far from a street etc.). Also, in order to be legal, any construction needs a permission from the authorities.

The problem was that, as often happens in Greece, advertising companies didn't obey those laws, filling with billoboards every street and every building. At some point, and mainly because of road accidents involving illegal billboard constructions, the previous government decided to enforce the law and started a campaign against illegal advertising.

Some local authorities decided to remove every illagal billboard, some tried but then chose not to as they kept receiving a much needed income from the advertising companies, and some couldn't care less. I can assure you you can still find illegal billbords everywhere around Athens, many of them still in use.